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Soul destroying jobs you've had

thelad95

What soul sucking job have you had throughout your life?

For me it was going door to door trying to secure direct debits for an animal shelter. As someone who is firmly against the idea of direct debits for charities (the company would have actually made more money if I had a bucket collecting change instead of looking for 9.99 a month from everyone. So many people said they'd happily donate change but didn't want to set up a DD).I absolutely hated it and was treated like ****e by many people. I lasted two weeks and secured no more than 5 direct debits meaning the only payment I got for 80+ hours labour was €15 commission. Fook that.

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ectoraige

I worked part-time for about 5 years as a loungeboy/barman and, although I did love the work, we had to wear dress shoes. I'd buy the cheapest out of Dunnes/Penneys but had to replace them every six months as the constant movement absolutely destroyed the soles on them.

Galwayguy35

Worked in a sausage factory for a few months, it's just as well people didn't know what went on there when they chewed down on their nice crispy sausages.

Was a painter for a while as well, the money was reasonable but I wouldn't have been able to do it long term.

Winterlong

I used to get seasonal work gutting and plucking pheasants when I was a garsún.

I am an IT project manager now. Not sure if I have really moved up in the world.

all the bais

Worked in a call centre in Belfast for 1 year whilst in college. Despised everything about it - the abuse you got on calls, the supervisor constantly listening over your shoulder, the hours. Our job was to ring random numbers in NI and carry out silly surveys.

However, I am quite glad of the experience though. I now know what its like to have a horrible job, and can still remember the depressing nights where all I thought about was work the next day.

Love my current job now, and if I ever have a bad day, I just think about that call centre :P

triple nipple

nkav86 wrote:

Eir call centre, f**kin awful

I feel your pain

Patrick_Swayze

This may not have been ‘soul destroying’ stuff but was my worst experience of work ever and was absolutely awful.
Couple mates and myself (about8-10 of us) worked down at Electric Picnic a couple years ago just setting up the stages and then taking them down again.
The first day we worked was the Thursday morning where we set up the speakers on the main stage, unloading equipment off a truck and did some wiring. We were basically standing around in blue hi-vis vest, waiting for someone to say ‘alri lads need 3 of you to follow me to X and do Y’. The weather was lovely and I was working with my mates so it was a grand day
The Sunday however, was a different kettle of fish altogether. We were summoned to EP at 8:00 to take down a couple stages. This time the manager decided to split us up, so we wouldn’t be with mates etc. which is fair enough. I ended up being put with a group of Romanian chaps of which, none spoke English so wasn’t ideal when handling heavy equipment together and trying to instruct each other. I was with these lads until 19:00 taking down this stage. We then walked to another stage for 19:20. The act wasn’t finished yet though so we had to wait 2/3 hours backstage. Usually this wouldn’t be too bad but it was some techno group who were pure s**** imo at least.
Afterwards we took down the stage, tough work but not the worst all the same. Took about 4/5 hours I’d say. Finished about 3am. I rang my mate when I was waiting for the techo crap to finish, to find out the majority of them were watching outkast on the main stage having a few bottles that their manager had snuck in. Aswell as this they received free food tokens to get a nice hot dinner while I hadn’t eaten in I don’t know how long. (had lunch packed but wasn’t allowed to bring my bag with me)
Myself and another random chap then had to follow this guy to lift stuff back to this stage from another tent. It was lashing down and the ground was like sludge. We weren’t allowed to let the precious equipment touch the ground even though it was on wheels. The guy who brought us decided to lead from the back telling us how to lift and shouting orders all the while not lifting a finger himself. We did that for a couple hours prob finished this about 5am.
Lastly this same guy who didn’t lift a finger brought me with him to pack up all the equipment in a spot called ‘rave in the forest’ I think but I could be wrong. When I got there I was finally reunited with 2 of my mates about 20 hours since last seeing them. We started clearing this place out but it was in some sort of pit and all the equipment had to be carried up a steep hill littered with cans and bottles, not to mention how slippy it was after the rain and a few nights of people jumping all over it. Once again our instructor guy was ordering us about, but we have enough at this point, I had been getting phone calls from my mates since about 4am asking where I was that they had been finished working a while now and were heading towards McDonalds. Myself and the other 2 lads decided we’d pull a runner. We started slying off as our instructor (my original bossy guy as the other lads instructor went elsewhere) was busy, before going full on sprint across random fields not knowing where we were. Unfortunately the guy saw us and started legging it after us shouting to get back before catching us (obviously hadn’t used too much energy all day since he covered 200m in about 30 seconds on bottomless ground). He was pissed at us but we manager to secure a deal that he’d let us go after another hour. To be fair to the chap he kept his word and let us go, thankfully. We were so exhausted and returned to the car park at 8am with the others all waiting for us.
We then drove home absolutely dying (had a few near misses driving home as the chap driving kept falling asleep on the wheel) and got home for 9am to go to school the Monday morning. We got €10 an hour for our work but we all received the same amount, suffice is to say that was the first and last time I worked for these cowboys.

mojesius

Call centre in London for a car sharing company. Shift work in customer care and I hated it. Constantly watched by supervisors, verbally abused by morons all day, crap hours and ridiculous targets to get a monthly 'bonus' of £100. The pay was absolute ****e. There were huge screens that would flash red when we had a queue of 5 calls or one went over a minute. It was one of those jobs where time went backwards.

Another soul sucking job was in a skanger boutique. 8h hours of fixing the sale rail and trying to stop nakers tearing security tags off in the fitting rooms. (Ironically, all the staff were fleecing the place anyway).

The boutique encouraged me to really focus during my LC while the call centre spurned me to come back home and do an MA. 5.5 years in a nice job now where I do not have to deal with the public.

jennyhayes123

nkav86 wrote:

Eir call centre, f**kin awful

I feel sorry for everyone working there. I had so much trouble from Eircom and then Eir. I hated ringing up every month and felt guilty doing it as I know these people probably hate there jobs as much as I hated ringing

jimbobaloobob

I was exactly the same JennyHayes. i stopped calling them to fix the problem out of sympathy for the poor person that would have to take my call.

My worst job ever was, putting suncream on super models for bikini photo shoots on white sandy beaches. My eyes used to stream with the glare and id miss spots so they would need topping up.

It was such a hard task i stuck at it though and was told i dedicated.

Blue Whale

Lady is a tramp wrote: »

I'm hoping to go back to college next year to study forensic science! Spent my 20s working in Finance but I fancy a change.

I'm always being told I should study Addiction Therapy too. Usually by addiction therapists! Maybe someday.

Going back full time or part time? Postgraduate or full course? Tis a big move in yer 30s fair play

Blue Whale

triple nipple wrote: »

I feel your pain

I rang eir a few times..wasn't impressed by their customer service, what is it about their work environment that is so bad?

columf

Worked the technical support desk for a crap ISP I hated it. The crap you had to go through every day 2 people on the desk for 6000 customers on a pos network that was over contended 8hrs of taking abuse from customers who were locked into a contract and you could not help them. Worked there for a year and then I just stopped answering the phones until I got my marching orders.

Worked as a door man for a pub in a Dublin suburb was right about the time I gave up drinking so depressing the same heads every day have been in the pub since opening going form the pub to the bookies and back again smell of stale piss and beer off them.

Gunslinger92

Collecting ****e in a bucket

Speedwell

When I was in the US, I was between secretarial jobs for a bit, and a friend sent me to talk to a lawyer she knew about a job. I'd done temp office work for courtroom lawyers in the past, and was considered very good at it because I had computer skills, liked legal stuff, was careful, and could spell anything. (Getting along with lawyers is sort of not the point; you don't become a Texas lawyer because of your magnanimity and pure heart. I could expand on the abuse I got but I won't. Despite that I was still tagged "gets along with lawyers".)

OK, a bit of background: Debt collection law in Texas is a bit crazy. Collectors who violate the rules are in serious danger of having the entire debt wiped out by the court, as in something that will probably happen. If the debtor can show a pattern of harassment, this is sure to happen. Collectors are barred from directly contacting debtors if the debtor makes it known to the collector that they are represented by counsel. If they contact the debtor anyway, it is considered harassment. The friend's sleazy lawyer acquaintance was a debtor representative.

He had set up a scam that claimed he could work with creditors to wipe out debt. The client essentially paid a fee for the lawyer to fax each creditor saying that the debtor was now represented by counsel. Then the waiting game started, with the object of outwaiting the creditors and making them settle for less than the original amount. My job was basically to read and file the letters sent to the lawyer's office by the creditors, and to let him know if any creditor offered a settlement of less than 20 percent of the original amount due. I also answered the phone and told creditors who called that all contact needed to be in writing. Otherwise all calls and letters were ignored completely. If the debtor received any contact from the creditor directly, the debtor was to let the lawyer know the details. In the meantime, the debtor's credit rating got murdered. The lawyer also used me as a free tech support person since I had done that work in the past.

When I was originally hired, the lawyer had me sign a contract of employment, something which was not usual in that place and time and had no formal status in employment law (it was considered just a voluntary agreement). Nothing about it seemed out of the way, though, so I chalked it up to "being overlawyered" and signed. Looking at it later, I found a clause that said that I was owed a bonus of something like a couple hundred dollars after 90 days of employment. A few months after the 90 days had passed, I presented my copy of the contract that we'd both signed and asked the lawyer about it. He went into a rage, accused me of forging my copy after it was signed (I'm still not sure how I was supposed to have done it), and had his secretary pull up previous copies in the computer to "prove" it. Naturally the previous contracts had the clause, and his other office people were surprised to find that they were also entitled to the bonus (that of course they had never received). Instead of paying any of us the bonus, the lawyer called the police to have me thrown out of the building (I was never actually told I was fired, lol). I told the police that I would be happy to leave if I was paid my back pay, never mind the bonus. They made the lawyer promise to send me a check, which naturally I never received.

I'll never work for or voluntarily have any other legal dealings with a lawyer again unless I personally hire them to represent my own interests. No other lawyers will touch your case if you have a legitimate grievance.

jobless

Worked in a meat factory when I was younger, one day I'd be pushing carcasses around a freezer, another packing animal bits into plastic on a conveyer belt all day.. On my final day I spent the whole day making sure there were no creases on the packets before being sealed.. My last one

work in IT now

Mec27

all the bais wrote: »

Worked in a call centre in Belfast for 1 year whilst in college. Despised everything about it - the abuse you got on calls, the supervisor constantly listening over your shoulder, the hours. Our job was to ring random numbers in NI and carry out silly surveys.

However, I am quite glad of the experience though. I now know what its like to have a horrible job, and can still remember the depressing nights where all I thought about was work the next day.

Love my current job now, and if I ever have a bad day, I just think about that call centre :P

I do that now, its grand, people get too upset too easily, I used to be oneof those people that if I was criticised or a customer said something I would panic and get sad, over time I developed and couldn't give a **** anymore.

Lux23

I got a jobbridge position in Marketing in a small mortgage brokers. The owner wasn't exactly an idiot, but thought everyone was conning him so he didn't trust anything I was saying and he was impatient to boot. I did a plan for him and implemented it, but he wasn't seeing immediate results so he decided I was spoofing him and got a company to come in and do the work I already did. When they went to review the site, they found everything was done but still pocketed the €2,000 fee. Several times I brought this up with the owner but of course he knew better. Anyway my father died a couple of weeks before Christmas, I shouldn't have went back before Christmas but like an idiot I felt guilty for being missing so much when he was sick and I was also offered a proper paid job starting the following February so I was leaving before the six months was up.

I turned up the week before Christmas and did three weeks of work in one and I was rewarded with a re-gifted bottle of wine that he got from one of the banks. The hurt I felt after that was something I will never forget.

drake70

bodice ripper wrote: »

MOTHER****ING DUNNES POXY STORES.

AllGunsBlazing wrote: »

Stockroom boy in Dunnes Stores back in the early 90's. Basically eight hours a day sorting clothes hangers for the girls out on the shop floor. And department store managers are easily amongst the lowest forms of life on Earth. Barely a Leaving Cert to their name with a laughably overblown sense of their own self worth.

This +100

3.5 years I would wish to have permanently deleted from my memory.

Koptain Liverpool

I worked in a Turkey Factory the summer before going to college.

There were numerous horrible jobs on the line. One that I remember was called the 'lung gun'. The turkey had been killed and plucked and arrived hanging upside down. You had to jab a long metal pole inside it and push a button to suck out the lungs. It took a fair bit of effort so I remember just going through the motions and lightly poking the pole into each one rather than doing it properly. Sorry to anyone who ended up with a lump of lung in their Christmas dinner!

Another job involved hanging the live turkeys upside down on the line from straight out of the crate. I covered myself in protective gear to the amusement of the old fellas working the position who didn't bother with any of it. i still ended up covered in piss, ****, and blood from the obviously terrified turkeys!

Tough gig doing that for life.

wakka12

As a young looking, inexperienced college student I get treated very badly in the parttime jobs I take over the summer break. The resturant/club/bar/hospitality industry is already notorious for mistreating staff but to make matters worse Im also a quiet, nice person and very unconfrontational.

Ive gone through so many jobs because I keep leaving them because I hate how Im being treated.
Managers/owners deliberately not telling me how much Im being paid or when Im getting a contract etc for up to a week, often telling me they don't know need me and that I can go home when I come in for my shifts if the cafe/bar is quieter than expected. Which I think is so rude, why not ****ing text me before I travel there. Putting down on the roster that Ill be working say for instance 1pm -2pm but later if busy. Which is so annoying because I have to keep my whole day free for them and I will probably only end up getting 2 hours anyway .Always paying me late, not making sure I know when payday is or how tips are divided etc.
One cafe I worked with last summer tried to tell me at the end of my first week that the entire past 7 days work were training days and so I wouldnt be paid for them. Absolutely disgraceful they tried to pull that on me. Got my pay for it though, I just wasnt having it.

These all might seem like small things but theyre extremely disrespectful, and you don't want to come off as a rude or anything because you could easily lose the job. And you don't want that, because its extremely difficult for students to get partime jobs in Dublin with little prior experience.
And please, to older people, when you go to a restaurant or cafe and see a young looking college age student serving you, don't be rude to them. It just makes the ****ty job even worse, theyre in the position Im in.

Mec27

wakka12 wrote: »

As a young looking, inexperienced college student I get treated very badly in the parttime jobs I take over the summer break. The resturant/club/bar/hospitality industry is already notorious for mistreating staff but to make matters worse Im also a quiet, nice person and very unconfrontational.

Ive gone through so many jobs because I keep leaving them because I hate how Im being treated.
Managers/owners deliberately not telling me how much Im being paid or when Im getting a contract etc for up to a week, often telling me they don't know need me and that I can go home when I come in for my shifts if the cafe/bar is quieter than expected. Which I think is so rude, why not ****ing text me before I travel there. Putting down on the roster that Ill be working say for instance 1pm -2pm but later if busy. Which is so annoying because I have to keep my whole day free for them and I will probably only end up getting 2 hours anyway .Always paying me late, not making sure I know when payday is or how tips are divided etc.
One cafe I worked with last summer tried to tell me at the end of my first week that the entire past 7 days work were training days and so I wouldnt be paid for them. Absolutely disgraceful they tried to pull that on me. Got my pay for it though, I just wasnt having it.

These all might seem like small things but theyre extremely disrespectful, and you don't want to come off as a rude or anything because you could easily lose the job. And you don't want that, because its extremely difficult for students to get partime jobs in Dublin with little prior experience.
And please, to older people, when you go to a restaurant or cafe and see a young looking college age student serving you, don't be rude to them. It just makes the ****ty job even worse, theyre in the position Im in.

you probably need to relax and not take things so seriously. why are people so hellbent on bigging up how ****ty their jobs are, its just a job so you can afford to do ****, stop treating it like it defines you.

Dr Strange

Mec27 wrote: »

...why are people so hellbent on bigging up how ****ty their jobs are ....

Hm, maybe something to do with the thread title?

Alf Veedersane

The summer before I went into my Masters, I worked in a factory down home. They made pieces of medical equipment: tubes, connections for tubes, that kind of stuff. It was in a clean room where the noise of the machines was well over 11 so ear protectors all the time. 12 hours of waiting for a length of tube to be extruded and chopped into 50 pieces, which you then wrapped in plastic, put a ticket number on, loaded onto a shelf and prepared the plastic wrap for the next 50.
Or lining a box and then waiting for 50 tube connectors to be popped off into a box at which point you swappedt he full and empty boxes, gave the full box a ticket and lined another box.

Or punching holes in the tops of tubes. Zero craic when you're hungover starting a 12-hour shift.

Was 2 weeks day, 2 weeks nights. Ugh.

I got on well with the others there but it was so loud that conversation didn't really happen.

kfallon

jimbobaloobob wrote: »

Had to shove my fist up it as far as my elbow with one of those veterinary gloves. Even now i get the shivers.

Sounds like a good Saturday night to me...... :pac:

Sky King

Anyone here ever had to pick stones on a farm?

*shudder*

arybvtcw0eolkf

I drove a taxi for five years.. Never again, no fooking way. Worse job ever.

The Backwards Man

I've never had a job that was soul destroying, and very few posting here have either. A job that's a bit repetitive or a bit squeamish, or maybe having a boss that's a bit overbearing is something we'll all have to deal with from time to time, it's a part of life.

To me, a soul destroying job would be something like a teacher working in a deprived area, an emergency crew that encounters fatal incidents or a nurse in a children's hospice. But the people who do these jobs are not soulless, they are heroes doing extraordinary work.

Tl;dr, soul destroying jobs me hole.

rainbow kirby

"Application support" for HP in Galway - turned out to be 12 hour shifts on MS Office Communicator asking people in Guadalajara and Bangalore to do things. I lasted 4 weeks, moved back to Dublin and filled in my application for my masters on the train back.

Dunnet Stores a close second. Absolute wankbags to work for.

Alf Veedersane

The Backwards Man wrote: »

I've never had a job that was soul destroying, and very few posting here have either. A job that's a bit repetitive or a bit squeamish, or maybe having a boss that's a bit overbearing is something we'll all have to deal with from time to time, it's a part of life.

To me, a soul destroying job would be something like a teacher working in a deprived area, an emergency crew that encounters fatal incidents or a nurse in a children's hospice. But the people who do these jobs are not soulless, they are heroes doing extraordinary work.

Tl;dr, soul destroying jobs me hole.

The OED defines 'soul-destroying' as an adjective that means 'unbearable monotonous'.

It looks like you have it backwards.

The Backwards Man

Sky King wrote: »

Anyone here ever had to pick stones on a farm?

*shudder*

It should be a form of national service, you'll never moan about another job again!

It wasn't that bad when you think back on it though, we only thought it was bad because we were missing Scooby Doo or something.